5 minute portraits...

So many times, people have said they wished they had all the time in the world when it comes to taking photos of people while shooting a portrait.  Family photographers sometimes feel that an hour or an hour and a half isn't enough time.  Ironically though, in a lot of cases I wish I had 15 minutes, much less an hour.

(Nikon D3s, 320ISO, Nikon 85mmF1.4D, 1/60th@F1.6.  Single SB-900 Speedlight inside of a 16" FotoRosa Softbox to camera right with a Half CTO on it.  Speedlight was set to iTTL-0.3 and was fired by an SU-800 Speedlight Commander on the camera)

That's Thijs.  Cool Cat. Loves to argue though, and Boy have we argued.  Not like, intense upset at each other argue, but more along the lines of debate.  One of his favorite past times is picking a topic and debating it.  Don't get me wrong I'm all for a good debate, but dang he loves it.  Took this for him and his Company Ultrasun USA (and Ultrasun International) last week.  He doesn't come to the States very often, but when he does he has things to do.  After I got there he had about 5 minutes for us to shoot photos, which is what we did.  I've done work for their company for some time now, and we get along.  He is comfortable with me, and I with him and that comfort level is something I wish I had with a lot of people that I've shot photos of because interaction and comfort level is important to snapping a good frame.  

Believe it or not though, this is relatively normal when it comes to someone that is anybody.  Not that families aren't anybody; hear me out.  I spend several days a month shooting in active retired communities, and holy cow these people are active.  In fact, in the last string of days I spent out at one of these places, I didn't even get the peoples names.  The PR person wanted to handle all of it, and Hey... Who am I to argue with easier for me?

(Canon 5D Mark II, 500ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@19mm.  1/30th@F7.1.  Canon 580EX SPeedlight set to 1/16th inside of a 16" FotoRosa Softbox to above camera left fired by Pocket wizard.  Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/32nd power zoomed to 70mm sitting on the kitchen floor aimed at the ceiling for a little bit of illumination. Also fired by Pocket Wizard)

That's Linda Wirth, a resident at Del Webb Active living community on the north side.  I probably could have taken longer with her than I did (after all I was in, set up, and out in 15 minutes...), but it was a straight forward assignment.  I needed to illustrate her in the house that she fell in love with .  This isn't the photo that ran, but this was my favorite out of the group.  Lots of shoots that I've done shooting or Del Webb have only lasted 15 minutes or less.  It can be crazy stressful, yet gratifying when done correctly.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 125ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@26mm.  1/160th@F11.  Single Canon 580EX Speedlight on a Stand to camera right zoomed to 105mm at 1/2 power aimed right at his face fired by pocket wizard. )
That's John Ditslear, the Mayor of Noblesville Indiana.  This isn't the final photo for this shoot, but I liked this one best.  Part of my assignment was to shoot the Mayor in front of City Hall, which could have been a nightmare since the sun was coming up over the building that morning.  If I had my Nikon gear I'd not have thought twice about it with the TTL, but Manual Flash out of  my Canon Speedlights saved the day.  Just in case though, I also shot him in his office. In Total his would have been a 15 minute or less shoot except that the Mayor popped a button off of his jacket and his assistant had to fix it real quick.  It gave us a few minutes to chat, and tell a few jokes (no no, not the Laffy Taffy jokes.....ok well maybe).  He was very personable and we got along which as I said; is important.  Being comfortable with your subject makes for great photos.  In fact at the end of the shoot he confessed that there is no such thing as the key to the city, but he gave me the closest thing to it; which was a Noblesville medallion with his name on it.  More Soon.

Scary Hot Stuff.....

Scary hot can be a term used to describe so many things. The Sun for example can be considered scary hot. After all it probably is the hottest thing us as humans know to exist; other than of course another star someplace else.... either way it's the closest hottest thing we know of. Personally right now I'd describe the amount of work I've had to do as Scary Hot. I can't complain whatsoever, however it's detracted from certain things that I should be doing as a typical 25 year old, like having boatloads of fun (sometimes even on a boat...), Blogging..., sleeping, eating glue, accepting candy from strangers, and did I say sleeping?

I've been doing a lot of side shooting from the newspaper lately on top of what was already a wicked busy time at the newspaper; and that's been excellent. I can not complain at all as a lot of the stuff I've done recently has really worked out for me in the end. The amount of hours and time I've spent awake and shooting the last few weeks. That can definitely be considered being Scary Hot right now. Honestly though I love what I do and despite the fact that I may not make it out to a bar on some weekends or do some of the things that a typical 25 year old does; I'm cool with it. It's a little bit of prospecting mixed with a dash of already found, along with a pinch of slightly off my rocker that makes for a good combination of photography; at least in my world anyway. Especially when you have to do some things exceedingly quickly in some cases.


That was a 5 minute portrait that I shot at the Fight with Flight last weekend. Some people who read this will have seen it already, and some won't. I wanted to shoot a portrait of a Redbull girl while at the RedBull Fight with Flight event because I was there for myself; and that's what I wanted to do. In the Newspaper Biz a 5 minute portrait is usually 4:30 longer than whomever you are shooting figures it needs to be. Either way, it turned out pretty solid for very little planning and a little faith in the Nikon iTTL system. I was pleased with the result, and so was the lovely Emily. Most of what I do is on such a tight deadline, you need to be setup and ready to go before you even go and get the talent into the room. After all, their time is worth more than yours (whether that's true or not, if you think that way you'll never be in trouble). You can get in trouble though, because Emily is a Senior in High School. Does she fit into the Scary Hot category? HECK YEA. I'm pretty sure she's got to be 18 to work for RedBull, but just goes to show you never know....

With other events in mind I'm sure everybody noticed all the advertisements around for the, "Big Game." I won't even lie that since the term "Big Game", is somewhat ambiguous I'm going to agree with my friend Grand Ref Otto (Grand Theft Otto to the drunks). We are pretty sure everybody who mentioned "The Big Game" was referring to the roller derby bout last weekend. The Naptown Tornado Sirens beat Memphis last weekend and it was an awesome bout to see. You can check out the photos from that event here.



Speaking of the Roller Derby, and 5 minute portraits; that's the lovely miss "Kickabroad Crane". Rumor is that she's so touch she broke her foot while kickin a$$ and she kept on kickin. Literally, she was wearing one of those plastic boot things you get from the doctor after breaking your foot, so she was easy to commandeer to be a light test subject for something I wanted to see. Simple 2 light setup, not much photoshop required except to put the two shots together which was easy enough that I managed to figure it all out in just a few minute. I need to come up with a derby name that is somewhat mormon related so that way I can have many derby wives, becuase lots of these ladies would definitely fit into that description of Scary Hot that I mentioned earlier in the blog. That photo was taken tonight at the Practice Base after I got done taking the photos of the Freshest Fresh Meat for the programs at an upcoming away bout. Simple. Easy. I like it. I could definitely use more of the simple easy. More Soon.

Cheese!

I think one of the things I find hardest to photograph is people. Not because I am afraid of people, not that I don't get along with people, not that I smell funny (not all the time at least...) and not that I'm not allowed to to talk to strangers. People are just tough to photograph.

(Canon EOS 1D-Mark II, 100ISO, Canon 24-70mmF2.8L@52mm, 1/500th@F4. Natural Light)

Sometimes it's just waiting until you have a moment with them, or that they show their true side, or that you just have a genuine smile from them. It's tough to time, and sometimes it's even tougher to light. Over the last few years I've had opportunity to really get some practice photographing a lot of different things, of which I've mastered none. The only thing I may be close to mastering is loading every piece of equipment I have access to onto myself like a pack mule to get it to and from the car in as few trips as possible. Subsequently this also means I try to travel with as minimal of a kit as possible. (if there are any Roller Derby girls who have seen me shoot something, they should be laughing right about now as they always talk about how much crap I bring with me).

(Canon EOS 1D-Mark IIN, 200ISO, Canon 100mmF2.8Macro, 1/100th@F6.3. Single 580EX Speedlight shot through a 32" wescott umbrella to camera right triggered by an on camera 580EX Speedlight shot into a 60" white reflector to camera left sitting on a barstool against a table to camera left.)

Joe McNally is a people shooter. He is also one of my photographic Idols. Strange to think of someone who is still living, and working as an artist as someone you want to aspire to be like. He's the master of light, and I wouldn't be surprised if light actually feared him somehow; just doing it's will for fear that he's going to go all Chuck Norris on the photons that make it up. I constantly look to his blog and website for inspiration, as well as motivation to become a better photographer. When I saw this post earlier, it really drove home that I need to work on my people shooting skills. Not to say that I can't get some shots that I like easily as some shots light themselves....

(Canon EOS 1D-Mark II, 800ISO, Canon 24-70mmF2.8L@24mm. 1/640th@F5.6. All light is provided by the fireball.)

Other shots I've experimented with lots of lights and lots of photoshop like in the last post about zombies...

(Canon EOs 1D Mark II, 125ISO, Canon 24-70mmF2.8L@64mm. 1/250th@F8. Single Dynalight 400JR set to 1/2 power to behind Ryan to camera left in a 36"x36" Softbox triggered by pocket Wizard. Single Dynalight 400JR set to half power to behind Ryan camera right inside of a 36"X36" softbox triggered by pocket wizard. Single Dynalight 400JR set to 1/4th power inside of a 20"X20" softbox directly above the camera in the face of Ryan.)

There's always something that I can do better, and that's the way it'll be every time. I know this for a fact, but it doesn't mean I'm going to be content with it. Nobody should be content, there's always that little bit better that they can be. I'm not known as a people shooter and maybe being a people shooter isn't my destiny. Either way, it's little exercises like shooting friends in their jobs that can help me out. I'm thinking of continuing that series still, so watch back here for more on that. If you've got an idea for a shot you should take it. Wayne Gretzky once said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take". I completely agree, and taking shots of anything you can think of is good for you. It'll help you photographically, Professionally, your subjects will appreciate a good photo of themselves if they don't have one, and sometimes it's just plain fun. More Soon.

(Nikon D3, 400ISO, 18-35mmF3.5-4.5@18mm. 1/20th@F5. Nikon SB900 Speedlight set to iTTL -2EV zoomed to 200mm snooted to Brads face with the Amber Warming Gel supplied with the Unit. Ultrasun Logo lit behind the tanning bed to left by a Nikon SB900 Unit fired by pocket wizard set to 1/32nd power zoomed to 50mm and shot into the back of the tanning bed. Camera's white balance custom set to 4000Kelvin to augment the Blue glow of the tanning beds, while using the warming gel of the Snooted SB-900 to Isolate Brad.)

Shooting 'An American Shootout'.....

So if you've read the blog in the last month or so you should remember this post where I talked at one point about shooting for a band named 'Youthguard'. Well, one of the guys who was there to assist the whole time was a member of another band named, 'An American Shootout'; or AAS for short. I hadn't heard of them at the time, but apparently they have been on National Tours twice; one you may have heard of being named The Warped Tour. He was working on some neat video stuff for the youthguard shoot that I'm still excited about the prospect of seeing very soon. But that's beside the point. He came to me not long after I shot 'Youthguard' and we started negotiations for the shooting of their band. Zach was his name, and he told me he was impressed with how the files I shot looked coming straight out of camera before they were being worked on; which I've got to say is a heckuva compliment and I thank him once again for that. My main goal is always to get a file that is as close to as I want it to start with, so that the post is as easy as I can make it on myself; or in this case someone else. I'm kind of the old school mentality where; if it takes 2 seconds to do it now and 2 hours to do it later............holy cow we are going to do it now. So we came to an agreement, he sent me some samples and away we went.......

(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@45mm, 1/60th@F4. Single SB-900 on a 8 foot paint pole with a 42" wescott umbrella hoisted above the band to the left held by my assistant Brad set to iTTL -0.7EV fired by Nikon SU-800 Commander Unit from on camera. Post Processing by Blue Tide Productions)

That was one of the first shots that we did. The band was looking for something DARK, moody, gritty and such. The location was in front of the old abandoned hospital here in Downtown Indianapolis at the corners of Fall Creek, and Illinois Streets. Apparently there is a sign posted that says it's a $500,000 fine for trespassing. I want to thank the Police officer who pointed that out once again for informing us of that fact, and letting us finish as quickly as we could. I'd like to think that nitty gritty attidues that we had are what made him decide to allow us to finish, but it was more likely the tears forming in all of our eyes thinking about that $500,000 fine for stepping foot on the wrong piece of pavement that night that really did it. When we were done there, we moved onto Mass Ave downtown.


(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@30mm, 1/40th@F7.1. Single Nikon SB-900 FLash unit zoomed to 200mm on the ground behind left of the band with the Green Florescent gel set to iTTL Group A -0.3EV aimed at the Left Sculpture. Single SB-800 Above the band from the left with an 8 foot Paint pole by my assistant brad with a 42" Wescott Umbrella set to iTTL Group C. Single SB-900 Speedlight zoomed to 200mm on the ground behind the band camera right with the green Florescent gel attached set to iTTL Group B -2.0EV. All speedlights triggered by an on camera SU-800 Commander Unit. Post Processing by Blue Tide Productions)

I was really pleased with how these turned out as these shots look almost straight out of camera, making very little work for Blue Tide Productions who was doing the editing. I'm sure that is what Zach had been looking for, and from my understanding he is very pleased with how they turned out, which makes me very pleased as well. Hopefully Blue Tide and I will be able to hook up on future projects if that was the case.

Despite the 'hardcore' nature of AAS's music, the guys were all super super nice; albeit a little cold at 9pm on a late November Saturday. Not that I expected them not to be nice, but you never know. I'd easily work with them again without much thought on future projects.

(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@62mm 1/40th@F7.1. Nikon SB-900 Set to iTTL -2EV zoomed to 70mm Aimed directly into the base of the sculpture to camera left. Single SB800 hoised above Zach's right by Brad on a 8 Foot paint pole through a 42" umbrella set to iTTL. Post Processing by Blue Tide Productions.)

I enjoy shooting bands like this, it gives them personality and it gives the band a chance to portray whatever image that they want. I dig it. There has also been some hinting about my working on another music video. Would be a Rock Video this time instead of Country, but that's still a long ways from being decided so Stay tuned. Speaking of portraying images though; the 2010 Roller Derby calendar is going to be available as of Saturday at the Bout in the Pepsi Coleseum. Check HERE for more information. After it's launched fully I'll probably have an entry or two talking about a few of the shoots. If there are any derby fans that read my blog regularly that are photo nuts like I am, I'm sure there will be a few questions regarding the lighting on some of those. Until then. More soon.

Help-Portrait...

Tis the season or so I'm told and in said season I have been approached to be a part of the Help-Portrait project here in Indianapolis. If you haven't heard of it I was pretty stoked to have been asked about it. Basically photographers, makeup people, videographers, printers, high fivers, and others all get together and donate their time and skills to a large group of people during the season. On December 19th I'll be at the Battered Womens Shelter here in Indianapolis and as a group we will be photographing the women for the holidays. Makeup people will be on hand, and they will be getting their hair and makeup did; and they will be getting their pictures taken. Each person will recieve the photos as well. This may not seem like much, but it really is a big deal, because some of these people will have never had their photo professionally taken before. For more information check out the grand scheme of the project here: http://help-portrait.com/ Or watch this video from the Nashville version.(which can also subsequently be found on their website)



Click it to go to the youtube page, I know my blog doesn't do video all that well cutting part of the right side off... I'm still working on that. If you are intersted in helping at all whatsoever with anything you might be able to do please contact me one of several ways, or Katie Moon here in Indianapolis at Katie.Moon@fidamo.com.

Speaking of contact; my buddy Brad apparently got tired of suggesting that I make myself a Facebook Fan page and made one for me himself. You can find that here for if you are actually a fan and are so inclined to publicly proclaim that. He was nice enough to make me an administrator so I can actually edit posts and things on there, but you can imagine my surprise when I got an email telling me to become a fan of my own business. Funny how that works sometimes huh? Anyway, thanks Brad for making sure I finally have one, that had been on the ever growing "to do" list for the longest time along with so many other things.

Made me also think that I should have a list of ways I can be contacted:
Email
Website
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Facebook#2:
Phone:317-937-5650

Now that that's out of the way, I hope everyone has a wicked awesome Thanksgiving. Related to Wicked awesome I leave you before thanksgiving with this awesome video that my friend Callie posted on her facebook. It's so great, I couldn't not share. Happy Holidays; more soon.

Busy as a 3 year old...

So been keeping busy lately; which is all one can ask for in this kind of economy right? Been so busy I lost track of the blog even. Been shooting so much I am surprised I don't have a blister on my little shootin finger. A few weeks ago I did the annual family shoot for my friend Shannon. Her little boy Gabe is awesome, I'll never forget him looking at me, his mom, and his dad and yelling, "Come on guys!" while saving his hand in the direction that he ran off right towards the space between never never land and hot dog heaven...

(Nikon D700, 250ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4AFS. 1/640th@F2)

That's him, running away from the scene that I was trying to use as a family portrait. It was awesome, seriously. I laughed hard enough that I had to stop shooting while his mom and dad ran him down. I would have to say that he's only slightly less squirrely than I am, but I think that's a function of the fact that he's probably mentally older than I am. He's a busy boy. Looking at fish, flowers, picking his nose, sucking his thumb. He even took command of my D3 at one point and took the first photos of his life. They were a fun family to shoot and I can only wish that someday I'll have the same.

(Nikon D700, 250ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4AFS, 1/200th@F2)


These family shoots can be a heckuva lota fun because that's what young kids are right? It's a nice change from the hustle and bustle I find myself at the newspaper. Keeps things interesting if you will. Tomorrow I'll deliver these images to the family and I'm sure they will be pleased as I am pleased with them. Busy week ahead otherwise, in fact I've got shoots lined up all of this upcoming week and weekend. Maybe some more ugly Christmas sweaters, possibly some stuff for a band here in Indy, potentially one or two other fun things as well. Like I said before; can't complain about any of that. More soon.


(Nikon D700, 360ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4AFS, 1/640th@F2)

Mad Wo-Men...

In photography everything is about style. Every photographer does their own thing, whether they have a stylist for a shoot, an art director, hair, makeup, Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Apple Aperture or even Macromedia Fireworks (now Adobe). A lot of times how you process your images is just as important as setting up an image correctly. Some people prefer to be as much in camera as possible such as Joe McNally. Others such as Miles Fork do quite a bit of photoshop work. Now I'm not saying there is no post processing involved on any photo, and if there is it is usually referred to as: Straight out of Camera. It's pretty rare when those files pop up, except for demonstration of a camera's raw ability. I don't even like it when people see my straight out of camera files, unless I managed to do a really good job on location or in a shoot someplace. Most of the time I prefer to do most of my work inside the camera, but there is ALWAYS some post processing that each photo goes through before it goes to the client.

(Nikon D3, ISO 320, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@65mm. 1/50th@F7.1. Nikon SB-900 Speedlight above camera left shot through a 60" umbrella set to iTTL +1EV, One Nikon SB-800 Speedlight set to iTTL-3EV shot into a white reflector leaning against the wall to the right of the frame. Both Speedlights were fired by an SU-800 Commander Unit attached to the camera's hot shoe.)

The Image above is flat out not finished yet. I can't decide what to do with it. I've run adjustment layer after layer between Selective color, Contrast, Levels, Photo Filters, soft light filters, hard light filters, multiply filters, and no matter what I can't make it what I consider to be: over processed. I can easily over process it, but not to where I think it looks good. I figure what I think matters considering this shoot was self assigned. I even bought two martini glasses for this shoot, that somehow both managed to get cracked in the 1 mile journey from the store to the office we shot in.....

This shoot is the shoot that I mentioned previously with my friend Heather. She came to me and wanted to do a Mad Men style shoot, and I decided this would be a great shoot to try some post processing. When a lot of people think Mad Men, they think of something along the lines of this, by Nikki Sutton and Polina Osherov. Outstanding photos, but, when I personally think of Mad Men though, I think of the promotional photo for Season 3:


Heather made a great model, and the wardrobe she picked out was outstanding for the shoot. I wish I'd have thought about the shot more, and could have found a few more props to go in the office, but in the end I think the shots turned out nicely. I'm definitely not done with the shots completely, but I couldn't resist putting some photos of the lovely Heather up.

Everybody has their own take when they think of Mad Men though and I may be the minority as to what I think. Heck, I've never even watched the show. For my shoot with Heather; I wanted to give the Mad Men feel except using a Woman. Same style of photo except with a modern twist; Heather is the executive with the office. The technical difference between these photos though; is the processing. Any of you that read my blog know that I prefer the straight out of camera, very sharp and very polished look. That's no secret. Even the guard cactus outside of my front door knows that. Sure enough, that's where I ran into problems when it came to the over-processing I thought it would require to do this shoot...

(Nikon D3, ISO 320, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@140mm. 150th@F3.5. Nikon SB-900 Speedlight above camera left shot through a 60" umbrella set to iTTL, One Nikon SB-800 Speedlight set to iTTL -3EV shot into a white reflector leaning against the wall to the right of the frame. Both Speedlights were fired by an SU-800 Commander Unit attached an SC-28 Flash cable and held by my assistant Brad.)

Photoshop lightroom has lots of preset filters that can allow you to make different effects on photos very quickly and easily. For weddings or events it's outstanding. Like, my honor roll kid can beat up your honor roll kid kind of outstanding. When I really want to do in depth photo edits though, I rely on Photoshop all the way. To each their own though, whatever someone is comfortable with is what they should use to do processing. Really though, well done over-processing is somewhat of a mystery to me. Really though I I'm pleased with how these photos look. If anybody has any suggestions though, that's what the comment section is for. More Soon.

(Nikon D3, ISO 320, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@62mm. 1/40th@F7.1. Nikon SB-900 Speedlight above camera left shot through a 60" umbrella set to iTTL +2EV fired by an SU-800 Commander Unit attached to the camera's hot shoe. A 60" gold reflector was on the floor to heathers right to hilight her legs, a 60" white reflector was on the wall behind heather to camera right, and my assistant brad held a 32" white reflector to heathers right about head level to lighten up her face.)

Meet Rachel...

OK so this is a quickie blog post, just as very much like it was a quickie photoshoot. I get a call on Monday afternoon after I had gotten over my WTF food poisoning in regards to a last second photo shoot for a girl named Rachel who needed very fast, shots to send to her agency in Florida. I am not going to lie, I hesitated at first because I hate doing things very last second, but in the end I agreed to shoot the pictures; and am very glad I did. Rachel is an awesome girl, and I've sort of half known her for a month or two now. By half known I mean she has been my waitress a few times where she works. Either way, she had a few shots in mind and I pulled a few things out of left field, which brought us to this:

(Nikon D3, ISO 250, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@175mm 1/40th @F5. Single SB-800 set to 1/4 power triggered by pocket wizard to the left of camera, shot through an umbrella slightly above Rachel. SB-900 Speedlight set to half power zoomed to 200mm triggered by pocket wizard wedged into the saftey release of the glass door directly behind Rachel, fired at her back.)


Rachel needed these shots absolutely immediately after they were shot, to send to her agency. These shots are what the agency was going to use to try to get her into the Ducati Runway show over the weekend of the Indianapolis Motorcycle Grand Prix. If I'm not shooting the race (which I hope I am) I'm going to have to try to get in there to see her. Or maybe I'll try even if I am shooting the race......you never know. The interesting part of these shots is this: YES, I did send them like you see them now. Why is that important? Because they are straight out of the camera; untouched by the airbrush gods, or by my feeble photoshopping skills at least. What does this hint at now? This hints that YES, Rachel is really that smokin gorgeous!

It's funny because I'm sure this shoot was incredibly tame, lame, and downsized as compared to all the shoots that she's been in for her Agency, or for the Miss Indiana competition's she's participated in. She was a 500 Princess, hooters calendar candidate, and probably been in about a bajillion other awesome things.


(Nikon D3, 250ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@150mm, 1/40th @F2.8. Nikon SB-800 Speedlight to 4 feet above camera left triggered by Pocket wizard set to half power shot through an umbrella)


We had a lot of fun shooting, Rachel is a riot. She was super excited that we were able to shoot Monday night, and in the end I'm very happy I was able to shoot as well. I am very pleased with the outcome of the photos, as well as the possibilities they will open up for her. She also gave me the greatest compliment on my photography I've ever recieved. In fact it was so great (and subsequently hilarious) that it is the name of the facebook album that she started with the shots she sent to Florida. She said, "I am going to build a church, and name it after you". I was so flattered, and laughing at the left field aspect of that statement that I had to stop working for a minute. Thank's Rachel, everybody gets lucky from time to time. Greatest compliment I've ever recieved. Itwas awesome.

Hopefully in the future we'll have more time to shoot some more, as the time and format constraints on this shoot were pretty tight. Needing to have them in as soon as they were shot, as well as that they all needed to be full body shots was sort of restricting. Either way, it was a good shoot and I look forward to the possibilities. I also look forward to editing through the rest so I can provide final photos to her as well (seriously, who wouldn't like looking at 300 photos of her?...come on). Best of luck Rachel, hopefully I'll get to see you make the walk down the Ducati Runway in a few weeks. To end, I leave you all with her favorite out of the few that we looked at already. Thanks again, and More soon.

(Nikon D3, 250ISO, NIkon 70-200mmF2.8VR@155mm, 1/40th @F4. Single Nikon SB-800 shot through an umbrella at 1/2 power through an umbrella above camera left by pocket wizard. SB-900 Flash unit dialed to 50mm set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard about 100' back on some stairs fired into the brick wall with the Florescent white balance gel supplied with the unit).

A slightly better setup shot can be seen here:

(Photo by Brad Clampitt) (No the camera on tripod is not mine, Brad just likes to have more cameras than me, when he documents things like this. That and that camera/tripod is wedged in my light stand to hold it from being blown away by the fan)

Meet Julie.

Every so often I get to take a break from shooting jewelry, food, or other various products; and get to work with a lovely model like Julie. I don't get to shoot a lot of fashion so when someone asks me to do it, I usually jump at the chance. We went to a house in the very northern part of Noblesville owned by Julie's friend Daryl. I probably spelled that wrong, but that's why I get paid to take pictures and not spell people's names. Anyway, Daryl has an amazing house. It wasn't quite finished, but that didn't stop us from getting the shots that Julie wanted. She was looking for very magazine style editorial type shots. JC Penny kind of thing. She had a bunch of examples cut out of magazines which was extra super helpful. We got some great stuff.




These are the 90% finished product. All sharp as Shot (as an iphone text message used to say with the spell check turned on). My buddy Tom always tells me how anal I am about sharpness but hey; there's nothing like a sharp picture. I'm trying to decide if there are any specialty effects I want to throw on some of the others. These though, I like just the way they are.

All these were shot with the D3 at 200ISO and I believe the 70-200 F2.8 VR lens. All were lit with various arrays of SB-800 and SB-900's with softboxes, diffusers, or just straight flash depending on what our surroundings allowed.

Speaking of equipment though, I'd like to throw a special plug in for my Buddy Tommy at Klipsch. I spend a lot of time in various restaurants and cofee houses editing my photos. A few weeks ago I made mention of the fact that I broke my headphones and Tommy graciously supplied me with a new set. The Klipsch S2's to be exact. Told me I could have them if I told him what I thought because they weren't going to be out until July. Well Tommy: Freakin awesome. They fit snugly in my ears and give me plenty of sound while keeping the other outside noises out. By that, I mean that I can play music in Starbucks which is loud enough for me to hear very clearly without hearing the rest of the coffee grinders and Chatty Cathy's in the joint. Plus they deliver such great sound that the volume isn't even turned up that high on my MacbookPro. That means that when I accidentally pull the jack out of the laptop while listening to death metal, it doesn't immediately drown out the Elton John they have playing causing a scene and glares of doom toward me from everybody in the Coffee shop. (What? You don't listen to Death Metal while photoshopping? I don't always either, but it's been known to happen). Anyway; the point is that these suckers are awesome. Thanks again Tommy!


Been shooting some video recently, among other various product related things. Just got hooked up with April Morris at Express Effects Cosmetics and am helping her out with a project. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of neat stuff we can accomplish as a team. Otherwise it's been business as usual. Not enough sleep, too much Diet Coke, and a whole lot of time on the phone with various people. Have an AIGA meeting tomorrow, some video to edit, am headed to Louisville Saturday for Roller Derby, and then the Honor our Hero's festival on the South side on Sunday. Can't complain about having things to do. More soon.